Larry Harris

Larry Harris News

Three large U.S. stock exchanges are lobbying for new limits on dark pools and other competitors, arguing that too much trading has become hidden on private venues that create more cost and volatility in public markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission spent 21 years seeking a system to monitor America’s largest stock traders. It took a 20-minute market plunge to convince the securities industry it was a good idea.

The California Housing Finance Agency’s attempt to buy back $112 million in debt without a public tender offer backfired when word of the trades got out, saving the nation’s largest state home-lending authority millions of dollars less than it planned.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.’s handling of Facebook Inc.’s initial public offering has already led to lawsuits and may cost brokers $100 million. What Securities and Exchange Commission officials will want to know is whether the market operator put the public’s interest first.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., the second- biggest U.S. stock exchange owner, revamped its proposal to compensate brokers that lost money in the public debut of Facebook Inc., boosting the payout to $62 million cash.

Bats Global Markets Inc., the third- largest U.S. stock exchange operator, said its computers allowed trades that violated rules intended to ensure all investors get the best prices for equities over a period of four years.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.’s creation of a $62 million pool to pay brokers that lost money in Facebook Inc.’s public debut shows how far apart the exchange owner is from UBS AG on who is to blame for losses in the botched deal.

More than five months before a software error ruined Bats Global Markets Inc.’s initial public offering, U.S. regulators put exchanges on notice that they need to do more to protect investors from technology gone awry.

Egyptian securities regulators may require brokerages and fund managers to disclose the owners of financial assets traded in the country as part of a probe of officials linked to ousted President Hosni Mubarak .